Wait for Me: Family Love Story in Alaska... A Christian Romance Novel with a Sidearm of Suspense (Vacation Sweethearts Book 3) Read online

  Wait for Me

  Vacation Sweethearts Book 3

  Jan Thompson

  Georgia Press

  Wait for Me (Vacation Sweethearts Book 3)

  Copyright © 2019 Jan Edttii Lim Thompson

  Author Website: JanThompson.com

  Book News: JanThompson.com/newsletter

  Published by Georgia Press LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, persons, places, events, and things either are the product of the author’s active imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Scripture quotations are from the public domain King James Version of the Holy Bible.

  eBook Cover Design: Georgia Press LLC

  Paperback Cover Design: Georgia Press & Deranged Doctor Design

  First eBook Edition: September 2019

  eBook ISBN 978-1-944188-31-3

  First Paperback Edition: September 2019

  Paperback ISBN 978-1-944188-32-0

  To my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save me from my sins and rose again from the grave to give me eternal life in heaven.

  For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

  ―John 3:16

  Contents

  Books by Jan Thompson

  About WAIT FOR ME

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  God’s Word is Sweeter than Honey

  Thank You for Reading WAIT FOR ME

  The Next Book is LOOK FOR ME

  About Vacation Sweethearts

  Acknowledgments

  Books by Jan Thompson

  About Jan Thompson

  Books by Jan Thompson

  Contemporary Christian Romance & Romantic Women’s Fiction

  Savannah Sweethearts (11 Books)

  JanThompson.com/savannah

  Vacation Sweethearts (7 Books)

  JanThompson.com/vacation

  Seaside Chapel (9-12 Books)

  JanThompson.com/seaside

  Christian Romantic Suspense & Inspirational Romantic Thrillers

  Protector Sweethearts (6 Books)

  JanThompson.com/protector

  Suspense Sweethearts Collection (Box Set)

  JanThompson.com/suspense

  Binary Hackers (3-6 Books)

  JanThompson.com/binary

  Subscribe to Jan Thompson’s Mailing List:

  JanThompson.com/newsletter

  About WAIT FOR ME

  Their marriage didn’t last.

  The last thing he wants is to relive it.

  A divorced single dad with full custody of his son made a promise he now has to keep: invite his ex-wife to enjoy their son’s birthday gift: a seven-day cruise in Alaska. Can two people who have given up on each other put aside their emotions to make their five-year-old son happy for a week? What could possibly go wrong in this Christian romance with a sidearm of suspense?

  Love has left him…

  Successful businessman Logan Urquhart regrets promising Jonas that he will give him anything he wants for his fifth birthday. The fortune he has inherited enables him to buy whatever his son desires. But all Jonas wants for his birthday is to be with his mother. “Dad, you promised.”

  Logan has no choice. Then again, it can’t be too bad. It will only be for seven days. After that, he’ll go home to Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and she’ll go home to Paris, France. End of story. Or is it?

  Love has returned…

  Undercover INTERPOL agent Marie Bouchard would love to see her son again, but not her ex-husband. Their lack of trust for each other destroyed their marriage three years ago. When he asked for a divorce, she gave him everything, including their son.

  Well, the reunion will only be for one week. The problems that have followed her around for the last three years are all in the past, aren’t they?

  But love is trouble…

  All seem peaceful, until Marie notices extra security onboard the ship. When her ex-husband becomes slightly paranoid about their son’s safety, Marie begins to wonder if it is a mistake for her to be onboard the cruise ship in the first place.

  Wait for Me is the the third novel in USA Today Bestselling author Jan Thompson’s Vacation Sweethearts Christian travel romance series celebrating the immeasurable grace and undeserved mercy of God. These novels are a spin-off of her Savannah Sweethearts beach romance series. Some of the novels in Vacation Sweethearts are also a prelude to the Protector Sweethearts Christian romantic suspense series.

  Wait for Me (Vacation Sweethearts Book 3):

  JanThompson.com/wait

  Vacation Sweethearts:

  JanThompson.com/vacation

  To be notified when new books are published:

  JanThompson.com/newsletter

  Prologue

  Logan Urquhart regretted ever promising little Jonas that he would give him anything for his fifth birthday.

  The fortune he had inherited enabled him to buy whatever his son wanted, including a whole toy store chain, pony rides to last a lifetime, and entire schools he would attend all the way through university.

  But.

  All Jonas Urquhart wanted for his birthday was to see his mom.

  “Dad, you promised.”

  Logan stared at his beloved son sitting next to him at their dining table by the window that opened to a pleasant spring in metropolitan Atlanta.

  They were eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Jonas’s favorite food, and drinking lemonade, also Jonas’s favorite.

  The little boy looked lonely.

  Sometimes Logan wished he could give Jonas a sibling to play with.

  In order to do that, Logan would need a wife. And he had no time for marriage—or remarriage—at this point in his life.

  Jonas chewed his PBJ.<
br />
  The silence between them broke Logan’s heart.

  He remembered when he had been very young, growing up as an only child of absentee parents, and only having his cousin Jared to call and talk to.

  He remembered having prayed for years that God would give him a sibling. When God hadn’t answered his prayer, Logan had turned his back against God.

  It hadn’t been until his college years at business school that he had realized how foolish it was for him to ignore God when the book of Proverbs was a fount of wisdom, which could be a blessing for Logan in his business.

  As Logan looked at his son, he wondered what kind of life Jonas would live, where he’d go, what he’d do so many years from now.

  Would he recall this moment when his own dad had all but reneged on his promise to give his son whatever he wanted for his fifth birthday?

  Logan sighed.

  Yes, Logan Urquhart, the financial genius who, with his cousin Jared, ran the multibillion-dollar Urquhart Enterprises investment firm, had lost the battle to an almost five-year-old.

  Thanks to his only son—to whom he had rarely refused—Logan must face Marie again.

  Has it been three years since our divorce?

  Logan didn’t know the real reason he had married Marie. Deep down, he wondered if Marie had been right about their relationship, how it hadn’t been based on any deep foundation.

  They had met at a business conference in the French Riviera shortly after he and his first fiancée had broken up, six years ago now. Logan was smitten with Marie’s charms immediately. The fact that she also spoke seven languages amazed him, and he hired the translator on the spot to accompany him and his cousin Jared to Sweden, where Urquhart Enterprises were to have a meeting with a Saudi businessman.

  Her FBI background checks panned out. She was a French translator who spoke English beautifully, almost like poetry. Within three months, Logan had proposed, and she had said yes. A lovely wedding on Cumberland Island, Georgia, sealed their love for each other.

  Unfortunately, once they returned to Atlanta after Marie had applied for permanent residency, she grew antsy staying in the ten-bedroom house on Paces Ferry Road with nothing to do but pace the floor. Logan was gone all the time on business trips, and his paranoia that his pregnant wife should not fly—you know, all that radiation in the sky—Marie couldn’t take it anymore.

  Perhaps that had been why their marriage had lasted for only three years. By then, Jonas was almost two years old, and still needed his mommy. Marie intended to take him home with her to Marseilles, but there was no way Logan was going to let his American son leave the country.

  Through the wit and tact of his family attorney, Logan had managed to wrestle the baby from Marie.

  Marie traveled for a living, the custody attorney had explained in court. She lived from hotel to hotel, job to job, embassy to embassy. Such was the life of a freelance translator much sought after by state departments and governments.

  Who was going to watch the toddler while Marie went to work?

  Instead of leaving him with nannies and strangers when he wasn’t with his French grandparents, Marie had agreed to let Logan have full custody of Jonas.

  Looking back, Logan wondered why Marie hadn’t put on a fiercer fight. Maybe it was true that not only did Marie want out of the marriage, she also did not want to be reminded of Logan at all, as their son would certainly do.

  Three years of single parenting later, Logan considered himself an expert at handling his son. Yet, there he was, bottom lip out, eyes on the verge of tears.

  “All right,” Logan found himself saying. “We’ll fly to France for your birthday.”

  “Fly? No, Dad. I want to go on a big boat!”

  “A ship?” Logan shouldn’t have suggested that.

  He cringed.

  “Yes, a ship!” Jonas clapped his hands and nodded his head, his blondish hair reminding Logan of Marie. “Can you buy me a ship, Daddy?”

  “Not the one you want to go on.” Logan wasn’t sure if the kid understood.

  “I want a ship!”

  Does he have to shout out everything?

  Logan tried to calm him down, but the boy had a big smile on his face. It was Marie’s smile.

  Melted Logan every time.

  “Can we have my birthday on a ship?” Jonas asked. “Please?”

  “Logistically, no. Don’t you want all your friends to come to your birthday party?” Logan didn’t feel like sending twenty or more kids and their parents or guardians on cruise just to eat a birthday cake.

  “What’s jickally, Daddy?”

  No point explaining. “Why don’t we celebrate your birthday first? Let’s have a party here at home. We can have it outside in the playground, if you want. You can invite everyone in your kindergarten class, plus all your junior golf buddies and Sunday School class friends from church. After that, we can have a second birthday celebration on a ship just by ourselves.”

  Logan was thinking that a three- or four-day cruise in the Caribbean would do it. It was about as long as he’d wanted to be away from his office. So much work to do.

  “With Mommy! Will she bring me presents?”

  Presents. Plural. Never just one present. It has to be more and more.

  What have I done with this kid?

  “Uh, I’m sure she will.”

  Although Marie hadn’t seen Jonas in these three years since she had left the United States, Logan didn’t want Jonas to think that she had ignored him. If he had to give him a good memory, he would wrap up some presents and address it from Marie. She wouldn’t mind, would she? After all, they always bought what the kid wanted.

  “Woweee!” Jonas jumped up and down. “I want to see whales! And geezers!”

  Logan coughed, suddenly feeling older than thirty-five years. “You mean glaciers?”

  “Uh-huh. And bears and salmons… Dad, do they have eagles there?”

  There was only one place in the world Logan could think of where they could see bears, salmons, eagles, whales, and glaciers in the same area.

  Alaska.

  He didn’t want to go back there, really, to the place where he had proposed to Marie.

  When was that?

  He couldn’t think of the date.

  “Daddy, please?” Jonas tugged at his hand, smearing peanut butter—and probably saliva—all over it.

  Logan stared at his son.

  Well, he’d done it this time.

  He had promised, and he must now deliver.

  Logan had never broken any promise in his adult life, including his marriage vow. He was free and clear, blameless in every way.

  The only relative in town, cousin Jared, had questioned Logan after the latter had signed the divorce papers, but Logan’s conscience had been and was still now clear.

  It pained Logan to recall that sad episode in his life. It had been as if someone had died.

  What on earth had happened to their marriage?

  Well, yeah, I wasn’t about to learn any of the languages she knows, since she speaks flawless English, but surely it was more than that?

  What had been so irreconcilable about his daily quarrels with Marie that had led to the abrupt end of their love story?

  Funny. Logan couldn’t remember the details of their arguments, only his own conclusions.

  And he knew he didn’t want Marie back in his life.

  Not ever.

  Chapter One

  Marie Bouchard blamed herself for being absent from her son’s life the last three years, even though there had been no way for her to call from deep undercover, not when the lives of her team members had been at stake.

  Ironically, she had been in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee back in October of the year before. It had been an FBI operation, although INTERPOL helped with the intel on the European side and Marie was embedded with the Americans since she could blend in with her American accent.

  Deep undercover with FBI Special Agent Jake Kessle
r, Marie’s job was to intercept everything said in French and translate that for Jake. After the operation was over, she was whisked out of the United States under the cover of night and flown home to Europe for their high-level debriefing in Lyon, France. Some higher-up bureaucrats didn’t like the way the operation had gone, and caused Marie to be dismissed from the rest of the operation.

  The very next day, Marie was reassigned to the French Riviera, where she began translating French into English for a British businessman whom the INTERPOL was very interested in. The French Riviera was exactly where Marie and Logan Urquhart had first met six years ago. There were so many memories there that she could barely focus on her job. On top of all that, chasing down a small-time drug trafficker was a demotion for her.